The fraction of periodic SN Ib/c light curves

Abstract

Periodic luminosity modulations have been recently identified for the stripped-envelope supernovae SN 2022jli and SN 2022esa, motivating a systematic search for a similar behavior in a larger sample. Such modulations may indicate the explosions arise in binary progenitor systems. We perform the first systematic search for periodic modulation in a sample of 34 Type Ib/c supernovae with high quality photometry from the Zwicky Transient Facility. We develop and apply a statistically rigorous pipeline for detecting periodic modulation in light curves. The pipeline successfully recovers the previously reported periodic undulations of SN 2022jli and SN 2022esa, and identifies SN 2020sgf as an additional promising periodic candidate. Injection-recovery simulations are used to quantify the survey sensitivity as a function of period and modulation amplitude. Comparing the observed detections with recent population synthesis models shows that, under the adopted assumptions, models predicting intrinsic periodic fractions of order ~20% are consistent with the observations. Our results suggest that periodically modulated SN 2022jli-like events may represent a significant sub-population of stripped-envelope supernovae rather than being exceptionally rare events, while demonstrating a methodology suitable for future wide-field transient surveys.